How I Stopped Choosing Overwhelm on Vacation
Once I reached a certain level at my old corporate job, I had "unlimited vacation." Essentially I could take as much vacation as I wanted, and get paid for it. Sounds pretty sweet, right?
The trouble is, I was bad at vacation. I did take time off, but I always worked a bunch of extra hours the week before, in order to have everything perfectly prepped. I also worked long hours the week after to dig out of the hole created while I was gone.
I was never really gone. My brain stayed logged in the entire time, which kept me from fully enjoying time off or being present with my kids.
Fast forward to now. I just got back from two weeks in Montana, and it was completely different. Not because the trip was fancier or the time off was longer. Because I've learned that overwhelm isn't something that happens to you. It's a choice, and you can stop making it.
Mornings started slow. I'd sit on the cabin porch, the mountain air just chilly enough that the warm coffee felt great in my hands. I'd take a stroll down to the creek with my sis or my son to look for a moose.
On our hikes, the hillsides were covered in wildflowers, purple and yellow and white for as far as I could see. I'd stop walking just to look at them.
It was so amazing to just be with my people. We played Pictionary, cooked pancakes and bacon over a wood burning stove, and just connected.
I never once thought about my inbox.
Here's the cool part: It wasn't the mountains that made this trip different. I've had beautiful vacations before and still spent them half checked out, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
What was different was me. Back in the day, I chose overwhelm every day. Now I choose calm and peace instead.
Nothing else has really changed. I still have a job, and no one is paying me unlimited vacation this time. Same responsibilities waiting at home. Same real life to come back to. I just didn't spend the trip carrying it.
You don't need a cabin in Montana to practice this. You just need to know that overwhelm is optional, and that peace is a skill, not a place.
HOT OFF THE PRESS
“Being in the present moment is magic.”
Many of us think feeling calm comes after we've finished everything on the to-do list.
But calm doesn't arrive when life slows down. It starts the moment we give ourselves permission to simply be present.
The challenge is that most working women don’t get many of those moments anymore. The second we wake up, we're already checking notifications, thinking about work, running through today's responsibilities, or mentally preparing for what's coming next. By the time school routines return and schedules fill up again, it feels like summer disappeared without us ever really experiencing it.
If your days already feel like they're speeding up and you're worried summer is slipping through your fingers, listen to this week's episode and give yourself the gift of bringing "vacation brain" into your everyday mornings.
Check out episode 274 here: https://tinyurl.com/OWWPod.
“It's dangerous because the exact behaviors that are burning you out are the ones that are getting you praised.”
High-functioning burnout is sneaky.
You can be exhausted, disconnected, and running on fumes while everyone around you is congratulating you for how well you're doing.
Your boss sees the work getting done. Your family sees the birthday party you somehow pulled off. Everyone sees the output, but nobody sees what it's costing you.
Here’s the truth: Just because you are functioning doesn't mean you're functioning well.
And if your productivity has quietly become tied to your sense of worth, slowing down can actually feel like failure.
So what's the answer?
It's not hustling harder. It's not squeezing another 30 minutes out of your day. And it's not necessarily quitting your job and blowing up your entire life like I did.
The real shift is learning to recognize what's happening and changing the way you think about productivity, worth, and what you actually need. Listen now to learn how to recognize what's really going on and start finding your way back to a calmer, clearer version of yourself.
Listen to episode 275 here: https://tinyurl.com/OWWPod!
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